Chapter 75: Sudden Change

"Leon, why are you so certain?"

Buleiya looked puzzled at Luowei Mall.

"Intuition." Leon replied.

"Uh..." Buleiya instinctively disbelieved.

Actually, Leon was telling the truth.

His intuition told him that the unopened shopping mall definitely had an abnormal phenomenon.

The victims' incident sites were spread across the city's prosperous districts, but if marked on a map, it's easy to see that Luowei Mall is right at the center of the victims.

The Venice Police also discovered this.

As Buleiya had said earlier, their police had thoroughly investigated the mall.

To avoid gossip, the mall investors proactively increased the number of security guards; if the suspect wasn't an idiot, it would be impossible for them to hide in the mall again.

But what if the suspect isn't human?

The police would never steer the investigation toward abnormal phenomena, but Leon would.

He finished the remaining coffee in his cup in one gulp, then threw it into a nearby trash can, and advised Buleiya:

"Buleiya, leave the subsequent investigation to our International Criminal Police."

Having said that.

Leon drew the. 45-caliber HKUSP pistol from his waist holster.

Chambered a round.

Engaged the safety.

Put it back in the holster.

Having completed the procedure, Leon took out his agent-exclusive phone, applied for support from the Venice Branch, and then headed toward Luowei Mall.

"Wait!"

Buleiya quickly grabbed Leon's right wrist, stopping what she saw as some puzzling reckless action, and said somewhat irritably:

"Leon, this is Venice; there's no way you International Criminal Police can take full charge, right? Or do you guys know some inside scoop? I'm going with you."

"..." Leon didn't respond.

However, information personnel are all equipped with UEN-001 (a silver rod that erases memories), used to immediately help witnesses erase memories of abnormal phenomena.

Even though Leon and the information personnel who graduated with him are interns, they still have UEN-001 and exclusive sunglasses.

He pondered for a moment.

"All right, but you need to let go of my hand first, Buleiya; do you still want me to buy you a coffee? Hehe." Leon said with a teasing tone.

Buleiya let go, but she couldn't be bothered to respond to Leon's teasing.

He's handsome and amiable, but Leon always gives her the feeling of being a jerk; anyway, she could never have feelings for Leon.

"Ah, women."

Seeing Buleiya not picking up his cue and walking toward the mall ignoring him, Leon couldn't help but self-deprecate.

Soon.

The two soon arrived at the entrance of Luowei Mall.

The guard at the door merely glanced at their credentials and let the two enter the mall to investigate.

Moreover, the security captain personally accompanied them in the investigation.

Possibly to save electricity, the mall's working lighting equipment is scarce.

When encountering dark areas such as storage rooms, restrooms, stairwells, etc., Leon and the others still needed to turn on their flashlights to provide light.

On the vast first floor of the mall, there was nothing useful found.

In the stores under renovation and those finished, the tiles were covered with dust from the renovation, and there were many disposable packaging bags and empty cardboard boxes.

It was filthy and chaotic.

But this was all normal.

Some of the finished stores already had their shelves filled with merchandise, covered with a transparent dust cloth to keep dust off the goods.

It looks like they're just waiting for the day the shopping mall opens.

Having found nothing on the first floor, Leon, Buleiya, and the security captain continued to the second floor.

The second floor is dedicated to men's clothing and sports brands.

The renovation here is basically complete, the tiles are much cleaner than the first floor, and there are many human models used to display clothing, casually placed in the aisles by staff.

Since the mall isn't open yet, and besides Leon and the others there are only occasional patrolling guards, they didn't feel how obstructive these disordered human models were.

But when they passed through the area full of suit shops, a male human model behind them suddenly moved.

There was no wind, no earthquake; it was that human model moving on its own.

At the same time, its head slowly turned, its lifeless gaze fixed on Leon's back, and then…

Its mouth split open rapidly, exposing the internal tooth-like tissue.

Immediately afterward, all the male models in this area seemed to come alive and silently followed behind Leon and the others.

Leon, walking ahead, still hadn't noticed.

"I say, have you two officers finished checking?"

The security captain seemed to dislike the second floor, especially these motionless human models, and thus appeared a bit impatient.

"..." Leon didn't respond.

"We can handle the investigation ourselves; you don't need to follow." Buleiya replied.

"Hey, alright, you two officers go ahead, but don't move things around randomly; even as police you'd have to pay for damages."

Before leaving, the security captain gave them a reminder, then turned back and prepared to leave this somewhat creepy second floor.

?

I remember, just now they weren't arranged like this, right? Wait… why are their mouths still open?

The security team leader hadn't gone far before noticing something abnormal about those human models.

A miserable scream of "Ah————!!!" came from behind Leon and Buleiya.

?!!

The two immediately turned around and saw the security team leader's limbs being very violently torn off by those human models.

"Pfft!" Blood spurted instantly onto the floor.

"Crack!" Mixed in was the sound of bones being torn apart.

"Save me… save me… save…"

The security guard was still calling for help to Leon and them, but the blood loss was really too fast; eventually he completely closed his eyes and fell into a coma…

Until death.

"No!" Leon, in uncontrollable rage, drew his gun and fired.

"Bang! Bang!" The report of the HKUSP echoed suddenly throughout the shopping mall.

"Thud~ splat~!" The human models struck by. 45 ACP rounds made a sound like shattering ceramic.

And black, viscous fluid oozed from the gunshot wounds.

But this was not enough to stop the human models' movements.

Seeing this, Leon immediately aimed at the human models' heads and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Bang!"

"Clatter~!"

This time, the human models whose heads had been shattered burst apart completely, black liquid splattering onto the floor and the corpse of the neighboring security team.

As befitting a police officer's reaction and training, Buleiya also immediately drew her sidearm, ready to assist Leon in dealing with the current situation.

"This…! Leon! What's going on!"

But upon seeing the gruesome corpse of that neighboring security team member, and those human models that could only appear in horror films, the Uncanny Valley Effect spiked to its peak.

Suddenly, all the human models turned their vacant gazes upon them.

(End of chapter)